7.1.2. Q: Cannot ping6 or traceroute6 as normal user

Error message: ”icmp socket: Operation not permitted”

These utilities create special ICMPv6 packets and send them out. This is done by using raw sockets in the kernel. But raw sockets can only be used by the ”root” user. Therefore normal users get such error message.

Solution: If it's really needed that all users should be able to use these utilities, you can add the ”suid” bit using ”chmod u+s /path/to/program”, see also program ping6 usage. If not all users should be able to, you can change the group of the program to e.g. ”wheel”, add these power users to this group and remove the execution bit for other users using ”chmod o-rwx /path/to/program”. Or configure ”sudo” to enable your security policy.